natural protection for wood floor of coop??

[camochick96]

We put a sheet of plastic down in the floor to protect the plywood, and also painted the plywood to help seal it.

 

[as110]

We put a sheet of plastic down in the floor to protect the plywood, and also painted the plywood to help seal it.

Don't they peck through the plastic sheet?

 

[Folly's place]

A dirt floor would be 'natural', so with exterior grade plywood, you've already missed the mark on that idea. Deep dry shavings will be okay, but sealing the plywood with something will protect it much better. Spar varnish, exterior grade paint, polyurethane, or some other marine type paint. Ask at a flooring store about linoleum if you like that idea. Mary

 

[camochick96]

Don't they peck through the plastic sheet?

No the plastic is what you would put as backsplash for behind a sink. It’s textured and thick and tough it holds up really well!

 

[as110]

A dirt floor would be 'natural', so with exterior grade plywood, you've already missed the mark on that idea. Deep dry shavings will be okay, but sealing the plywood with something will protect it much better. Spar varnish, exterior grade paint, polyurethane, or some other marine type paint. Ask at a flooring store about linoleum if you like that idea. Mary

So how deep is dry shavings? I changed the straw today to shavings because the straw got wet. I thought it would be dry but everything inside the coop got wet. I am quite disappointed by this. I hope the shavings will do better, but I don't know if I put down enough.

 

[Folly's place]

To 'as110'; Bedding shouldn't get wet immediately, unless there's a ventilation problem, leaking waterers, and/ or ducks present! Shavings will work very well if it's normally dry in there. Is there a dirt floor with drainage issues from outside? Mary

 

[Coykoi]

Linoleum is an old term for sheet flooring. Vinyl is what sheet flooring is made of today. It's more flexible and less less likely to crumble under heavy pressure or usage.

 

[as110]

To 'as110'; Bedding shouldn't get wet immediately, unless there's a ventilation problem, leaking waterers, and/ or ducks present! Shavings will work very well if it's normally dry in there. Is there a dirt floor with drainage issues from outside? Mary

There is no drainage. The coops is wood, we closed up the gaps around the roof because of predators but it isn't airtight. The roof is metal for fire protection (we live in a forest). One of the windows is covered with corrugated plastic so the wind would not blow through. The other window on the opposite side is not covered. The floor is wood. The straw got wet over a few weeks. I thought I could get away with not cleaning until spring if the straw is deep enough, but the main floor wasn't deep enough and the spot where I pot a bale of straw and fluffed it up collapsed over a few weeks and felt wet. The bottom 6 inches were still dry, the top 8 inches were damp. There was a lot of poop under the roost ladder.
I put the waterer into the coop with a light underneath to prevent it from freezing. It is raised from the floor so it is also kept clean. It is possible that the hens sprinkle when they drink. I don't know what else I could do about the water situation.
The roosters start to crow anywhere between 3:30-5:30. I am not going outside in the dark to open the door that early but I left the water in there and a bowl of feed so when they wake up they are OK until I open the door. This way I can get up at 7:00 instead of 5:00AM. I just started to do this since we switched the time and we have big snow.

 

[Birdinhand]

I added a second floor to my coop to raise my meet birds. I used plywood for the floor and over that I lined it with shower stall liner, not the plastic roll stuff, but the 4'x8' sheet of white plastic that is made to be the siding of the shower itself. it's flexible, easy to cut and thick enough that the chickens don't damage it. while I don't know for sure that there is no leaching, I'm confident that it is minimal and certainly better than the chemicals in the plywood that would surely get absorbed in the litter. the one thing I would do differently is running the liner up the walls by about 4" or so to protect the wall material and make cleaning simple. I love the stuff! I bought it at home depot.

 

[as110]

It sounds good. Eventually I want to line my coop so that I can hose it down once in a while. For now I scrape the floor with a flat shovel. I think that plastic would be easier to scrape.